Thanks for checking out my work.
How the Minnesota Council of Churches is bridging divides
Minnesota Star Tribune
The new election series of “Respectful Conversations” is aimed at decreasing political partisanship. As a part of the Strib’s Advancing Democracy Fellowship, I examined the effort — solutions style.
Columbia Missourian
Roy Lovelady is Columbia’s Third Ward city council person, a business owner, activist and a drag queen. I followed his journey to the 50th Miss Gay Missouri America pageant.
The pandemic is over, but Minnesota school nurses are still under pressure
Minnesota Star Tribune
Pandemic relief funding ended but student need was still rising, especially in mental health issues. I spoke with nurses across Minnesota about the impact it’s having on their jobs.
Saturday Cafe provides 14 years of breakfast for unhoused in Columbia
Columbia Missourian
This 15 -year collective effort of downtown Columbia churches serves unhoused community members week after week. I spent weeks with the facilitators and attendees, documenting the service effort.
What’s behind the music at Trump and Harris rallies?
Minnesota Star Tribune
I analyzed over 30 songs played at the Minnesota and Wisconsin rallies, revealing insights into each campaign’s base and lead message.
‘Let’s not lose our humanity at this time’: Mid-Missourians on Israel conflict
KBIA-FM
After the Hamas October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, I documented the Mid-Missouri response. National winner of 2023 SPJ Mark of Excellence award for national radio reporting.
The Texas Tribune
With support from the Reynolds Journalism Institute, I was the Trib’s first product fellow.
My key project: Finding a better way to connect with our members — our key readers and financial supporters. I spent a summer leading research sprints, user interviews and A/B testing.
Maximizing your membership program with product thinking and user research
Build a culture and practice of user research across the newsroom
Texans need truth. Help us report it.
That’s what resonated.
The CTA I pitched in 2023 lives on far past my time as a fellow, connecting insights from a summer of surveys and interviews to the nonprofit’s current outreach strategy.
In addition to my key project, I conducted several additional sprints.
I tackled the education newsletter, identifying easy-lifts to optimize its offerings. I also helped craft a new product, The Y’all a regional newsletter, by auditing readers outside metro areas.
Podcasts at the Texas Tribune continue to evolve. I independently led the first in-house audit of its products.
Columbia Missourian
As an Assistant City Editor on the Higher Education and Health beat, I edited more than 200 stories and mentored more than 30 student reporters.
From stories on feral cat ordinances, public safety and severe weather, to Election Night coverage — I edited it all. I also deepened connections between KBIA-FM and the Missourian, building dual packages for several stories and training students in radio.
The Maneater
As Editor-in-Chief, I led and announced the paper’s transition into a new, exclusively-digital news outlet.
Letter from the Editor: The Maneater says goodbye to the print edition
I’d call that my greatest hit — but that’s not all I accomplished.
Bringing our newsroom out of the pandemic was equally important. While in the role, I built the staff up to more than 150 by promoting a safe, welcoming and engaging environment.
I built new systems for multimedia reporting, wholly redesigned our website and crafted new roles to maintain it. I edited several investigative projects, revamped our newsletter and launched the organization’s first entirely digital arts & culture magazine.
Watchdog Writers Group
For two years, I assisted author Caleb Gayle with two book projects on Black Western expansion and the creation of the racial wealth gap in South Carolina. Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State was long listed for the National Book Award in Nonfiction.
I conducted historical property and socioeconomic research in this role, edited proposal drafts and chapter copy.
As part of the book’s rollout in Summer 2025, I was invited to speak at one of Caleb’s tour events. Click to hear more about my contemporary research on Black towns like Nicodemus, Kansas.
Undergraduate Research
As part of my political science and peace studies emphasis while at MU, I tackled several research questions:
- Reorienting imagined communities through ecofeminist frameworks
Argues drawing on frameworks like ecofeminism, indigenous knowledge and anti-nationalist ideology, we may be able to reimagine our global community in a manner that prioritizes sustainability and care.
- The convergence of human rights and environmental protection, generating change for international groups vulnerable to climate change
Evaluating how the United Nations may become more effective at addressing damages to small island developing states and indigenous groups caused by climate change by employing a human rights legal framework.
- Prescribing systemic overhaul to dominant groups; the materialization of wide-scale white accountability by the Movement for Black Lives
Assessing the Movement for Black Lives’ impact through the lens of Bayard Rustin and Kwame Ture’s theories on the involvement of oppressive groups in the movement for racial justice in the United States.
Anna Colletto
anna@tulsaflyer.org
Anna Colletto 